


Stories of the Second Self: Boil, Toil, and Trouble

by John_Steiner



Series: Alter Idem [178]
Category: Urban Fantasy - Fandom, witches - Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-22
Updated: 2020-04-22
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:01:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23792782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/John_Steiner/pseuds/John_Steiner
Summary: Seething at the legal technicality used to end the marriage without alimony, a vampire named Renee Morison seeks out an abandoned mall where she can carry out a huge ritual to lay a curse on her ex-husband. Her friend and still growing hired hand, Tito Graham expresses reservations, and not just about the specific curse Renee wants to cast, but magic in general. However, Renee is undaunted and burning for payback. Though, she must finish before the sun rises.
Series: Alter Idem [178]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1618813





	Stories of the Second Self: Boil, Toil, and Trouble

"C'mon, Renee," Tito warned, following Renee Morison into the abandoned mall's unlit main hall. "You don't think the cops won't check in on this place?"

"There's no power, no security cameras, and no witnesses," Renee told the eight and a half foot tall man behind her. "No one will ever know."

A few months after supernaturals started popping up all over and the federal occupation started much of Cincinnati was in lock-down. However, this mall had been shuttered before all that. The skylights allowed nighttime illumination, which was more than plenty for Renee.

"Why a mall?" Tito asked, panning a flashlight around.

"Plenty of floor space and a blocked view of what I'm about to do," Renee answered, as the ambient warmth of a late summer's night added her ample infrared light to see by along with visible and UV.

"Look, you're so pissed at this guy couldn't you just show up and feed off him," Tito suggested, "What's the big deal about doing it this way?"

"I was doing witchcraft before I was a vampire, you know," Renee said, turning around to beam at Tito a smile full of curved razors. "Maybe you should try it. You might like it."

"Nope," Tito refused and folded his arms. "Breaks the First Law of Thermodynamics. Until I know different I'm not touchin' that shit."

"Awh, what's a matter?" Renee teased, "The big bad applied physicist gets spooked by a little hocus pocus?"

Tito gave an uncontrolled shudder while looking around. "Look, you know what you are. I don't. The growth is still going, and I'm afraid maybe magic will speed it up. Am I going to be an ogre? A troll? I don't know? All I know is it's giving me growing pains and running up my grocery bill. Food's already getting harder to get at the store."

Tito Graham wasn't the kind of tall person one might find in the Genius Book of World Records. Rather than being unduly thin for his height he was more muscular in proportion than regular people. Tito's eyes and ears looked a bit small for his face. Tall as he was Tito's width and breadth was greater. His legs appeared short for his height, making it seem like he had been born with dwarfism.

Weeks after that Mark Lowell kid hit the news Renee started working out a spell that would help spot supernaturals before they manifested, but she hadn't got it working just yet. Too few people were willing to offer blood or tissue samples when the person asking was medically dead.

Pulling out a thermos, Renee took a swig and savored the taste before offering it to Tito. "You wanna try some?"

"Fuck you, Renee," Tito scoffed with a hint of amusement.

"You know, I think I'll just perform the rite here," Renee said while sizing up the hall space between the two rows of closed out stores. "Pass me over the stuff when I ask for it."

Renee and Tito had been friends for awhile, even so she started paying him as a handyman to do errands in the day. That's also when she revealed to him she believed in magic. He carried a heavy bag that Renee herself could've handled just fine. So far, she was stronger than Tito. For now, at least.

"Hand me the brush and first can," Renee ordered with her hand out gesturing.

"Certainly, my wicked queen," Tito sarcastically complied.

She took from him the broad brush and what looked like a paint can. Opening it, Renee exposed the red ichor that she knew she couldn't drink.

"Why goat's blood?" Tito wondered, "Is it a pagan thing or satanist?"

"You know, I don't have a clue," Renee confessed as she dipped the brush. "I've been taking down spells from both. What do I care what they worship? So long as it works is good enough for me."

"Don't cross the streams," Tito said, and looked off, "Think I recall that from a movie somewhere."

"There is no Renee, only Zuul," she mocked in imitation of a deep gurgling voice, and then turned a bit more serious. "I'm sure if Satan were real he'd have come out and stopped me long before now. Otherwise, I'd just take over hell."

"You really hate your ex that much," Tito observed.

Two of the five lines laid down, Renee positioned her hands over the junction between them to see if the angle were right. "Our marriage wasn't great but the lifestyle was. Prick used that whole 'death do us part' clause to end it in court. He figured he could dismiss me with a five hundred thousand dollar check and be done with it."

"Half a million?" an incredulous Tito replied, his brows raised. "I could've taken that and be happy. Solves a few short term problems."

"Tito, he's worth over eighty million," Renee said, tilting her sideways, and then started on the third line. "'Course, not when I'm done with him."

"So, you turned and he didn't," Tito observed, "You'd still do this even if he had become a vampire too, huh?"

"It's not a belief system or a club," Renee stated, "I wasn't hoping for this to happen to me."

"But you don't hate it, either," Tito surmised, "Right?"

"It has perks," Renee admitted while finishing up a fourth line. "For all I know I'll have ample time to learn new trade crafts."

Tito didn't wait for the last line to be added before noting, "A pentagram."

"Thought you didn't get into this stuff," Renee reminded.

"I can do partial differential equations in my head," Tito claimed and waved an open-handed gesture at the five-pointed star. "Geometry and trig are a cakewalk by comparison."

"Okay, the articles now," Renee bid, sizing up her work so far with an approving eye.

"Did you even wash these?" Tito asked, handing over men's underwear.

"I needed as much of him on these as I could get," Renee answered.

"Ugh," Tito gasped with a contorted face. "You're a nasty woman."

"How sweet of you to notice," Renee cracked and placed the underwear at one point.

A comb went on another, then an electric razor head, a toothbrush, and her ex-husband's favorite coffee mug that had a presidential campaign slogan and year on it. The last item was in a small zip-lock bag, which Tito passed over while staring at the hairs in it.

"Clipped those off while he slept?" Tito wondered.

"Natural balding," Renee chided with a smirk, "I'd been collecting them off the pillows and his comb. If he'd waited long enough for me to figure out how to turn him I'm pretty sure it'd all have come back. He'd lose the gut too. But ohh no!"

"Can you turn people?" Tito asked with uncertainty.

"Not yet," Renee admitted, "Not sure any vampire can, though I'll bet someone's working on it. The only question is who can turn."

"You know what?" Tito raised his palms up. "I'll just take what I been dealt and call it good, thank you."

"Okay, this part I'm going to need to concentrate for," Renee said, sizing up the twenty foot wide layout.

"Lips are zipped, got it," Tito replied dropping the heavy duffel bag on the floor and then stepped away to sit with his back against a column.

Renee rummaged through the bag to fish out a smaller brush for canvas painting and a fresh can of blood. Then, she sat cross-legged in the middle of the pentagram, two points in front of her, and reached over into each of the triangles to paint glyphs.

"Hersh Morison," Renee addressed for the focus of the chant, "I cast your name. I muster your fate. My brush paints your destiny. My will directs your punishment. All other futures are denied to you."

Having practiced the enunciation beforehand, Renee recited the same chant backwards in Latin and forward again in English. She wasn't sure why Latin mattered, but that's what the ritual laid out. It went on like that for a couple hours, as Renee wrote into the five triangles of the pentagram what she wanted to happen to Hersh.

Some of the curses were minor annoyances that Renee knew would get under her ex-husband's skin, but others were severe. She'd heard that Hersh was engaged to another woman just months after the judge ruled that the marriage was over without being a divorce. Breast cancer, miscarriages, liver spots, weight gain, and hair loss were all written out in goat's blood for the new woman alongside the five effects she wanted Hersh to suffer.

Renee didn't have personal affects from Hersh's fiance, but she knew what would put him off or make life difficult enough for him to walk away from her. From other practitioners, Renee read that not all of them would necessarily take, but one or two usually kicked in within weeks to months.

"That's that," Renee declare, standing up in the middle pentagon. You son of a bitch."

Tito stirred, having drifted off into sleep, "Uhh, what?"

"Not you," Renee said, and admired her work.

Rising up with some pains in his face, Tito walked over to study the results. "You really went all out."

"Detail is important," Renee said, holding up pinched index finger and thumb, and then shifted to an open palm. "Yeah, okay, so I got carried away. Bitch took my man."

"Uh-huh," Tito acknowledge with a slow nod and folded arms.

Renee pulled out her phone and checked the time. Despite cell networks being down phones still had plenty of uses. "Still got three hours to dawn. I should get a bite."

That's when Tito rubbed the back of his head with hesitancy. "I hate it when you phrase it like that. Well, this is where I let you go off on your own. I'll pack the rest of this up and leave you to it."

"See you tomorrow night, then," Renee called after him.

"I got a choice?" Tito doubted.

"Money's money," Renee enticed.


End file.
